I'm confused - but I have an appointment tomorrow for tires to be mounted - and - I'm confused which two of the four dots should line up: Both documents below say US wheel manufacturers and tire manufacturers are *required* to mark the "low spot" and "high spot" respectively. On the back of my stock 16" BMW (BBS) rims, is this nick painted white, which I presume is the marked "low spot" (which, you may notice, is not at the valve stem): Yet, on the tires, I see both a red dot and a yellow dot! RED = (apparently the) high point of radial runout on the tire YELLOW = (apparently the) light point (with respect to balance) on the tire So, that makes FOUR separate spots, two on the wheel and two on the tire: 1. Wheel valve stem 2. Wheel white nick (presumably that's the low spot 3. Tire red dot (presumably that's the high spot) 4. Tire yellow dot (presumably that's the light point) OK. Now what should I tell the installer to line up? Q1: What two spots (of those four) should line up? Q2: Should they remove all these weights first?

The problem is they don't care - and - if I don't tell them what to do, they won't do it. Proof is that they torque all cars to 100 foot pounds (just ask them); and they put in the same air pressure in all four tires (BMW doesn't spec it that way); and the alignment shops don't add 500 pounds of weight (BMW does spec it that way); and they rotate the tires (BMW doesn't spec out a rotation), etc. Point is, the guy installing tires, in my humble experience, may or may not know how. Sure, you'd *think* they'd know - but - I've asked them in the past and had to show them articles on how to mount them - but I've never seen both the red dot and the yellow dot on the same tire nor the valve stem not being the corresponding spot on the wheels. So, in summary - the tire installers do *not* care about properly installing tires (just like the alignment guys don't add the required 500 pounds of weight, 150 in the driver seat, 150 in the passenger seat, 150 in the back seat, and 50 in the rear...

Which of these 4 spots (2 on tire, 2 on wheel) are supposed to be lined up?

Jul 15, 2013 162 Replies

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Geoff Welsh 13 years ago

had to thread/unthread for a minute there, but I got what you meant. Now I'm LOL thanks for that, JB. GW

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Geoff Welsh 13 years ago

Tightening them to the same torque spec is indeed rational. Did you think the front should be tighter? Or the back? Maybe the right side? Right turns are tighter in the US.

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TekkieÃÂ® 12 years ago

Angel A. posted for all of us...

And I know how to SNIP

They are "required" by the vehicle manufacturer because when the tire/wheel manufacturers QC their products the parameters are measured as part of this process. Thus the vehicle manufacturers have several less steps to perform while mounting tires to wheels in production.

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